Poland and Ukraine have been chosen to host the 2012 European Championships.

 

Italy were widely expected to win the Uefa vote in Cardiff, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running.

 

However, Italy's bid was overshadowed by last season's referee corruption scandal and their on-going problems with football-related crowd trouble.

 

It will be the first time that either Poland or Ukraine have hosted a major football championship.

 

Their bid team staged an impressive presentation on Tuesday, featuring Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek, world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, former pole vault Olympic champion Sergei Bubka and Ukraine president Victor Yushchenko.

 

Games will be played in four Ukrainian cities (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv) and six Polish venues (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow).

 

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6562527.stm

I;m glad to see Italy didn't get it... Italian football is the shame of Europe at the moment.. I reckon that Italian clubs should be banned from European competition just like English clubs were in the 1980s... The ban worked in England's case, only relatively rare examples of hooliganism occur now... Such a shame, I used to LOVE watching the Italian footie on Channel 4, Vialli, Baggio, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Batistuta (yeah, okay I know he was Argentinian, but still...) and others, great players - Juve, Inter, AC Milan, Fiorentina, great teams once upon a time...

The only down side of this win because since the two hosts are automatically qualified, some better teams may not qualify.

That's one reason why I don't like joint biddings.

Better teams not qualifying is a good thing, it brings shocks and makes them realise qualification is a given right. It'd give them a real wake up call. I think it'd be interesting to see some of Portugal, Spain, England, France & Italy to NOT qualify for Euro 2008.

Bah I wanted it to be Hungary and Croatia. Never mind, glad it isn't Italy.

I'd have liked to see it in Croatia/Hungary but still anything's better than it being played in Italy at the moment. Hopefully this will a wake up to everyone involved in Italian football that something really needs to be done to sort out the state of it as 18 months ago if the decision were to take place then I think it would have been almost certain that Italy would have hosted the Euros in 2012.

I think this is a great news for European football. It will give the opportunity of redeveloping football in Eastern Europe.

that something really needs to be done to sort out the state of it as 18 months ago if the decision were to take place then I think it would have been almost certain that Italy would have hosted the Euros in 2012.

 

and nearly every fan (especially if England qualified) would be battered to an inch of their life by the police -_-

Good! Great to see smaller nations getting an opportunity :D

I think this was the better choice to be honest, but why have two countries, when it used to be just one.

Bah I wanted it to be Hungary and Croatia. Never mind, glad it isn't Italy.

 

Me too... but well maybe next time... and then you're all have to come to see Croatia... It's better for us that we did't win... next time we're compiting alone... i'm sure we didn't get it, couse we were with Hungary.

aren't Northern Ireland and Scotland bidding for 2016?

I see Scotland and Wales want to team up for 2016 :funky:

 

other than the Millenium Stadium what is there in Wales to host international football :unsure:

I see Scotland and Wales want to team up for 2016 :funky:

 

other than the Millenium Stadium what is there in Wales to host international football :unsure:

 

that's why Croatia did't win this time. We have like 2 stadiums that are something, and they are nothing if you compare it to any stadium in UK!

 

But then again 2016 is very far away, with the money they can built new stadiums.